In the development of mass production technologies of nanostructured surfaces and semiconductor structures for large area applications such as for example foils or films, there is a demand for functioning roll-to-roll machines which are able to emboss continuous nanostructured and/or semiconductor structures via rolling onto a track or a long workpiece. Major problems prevail here, especially in an application for imprint lithography; this has not been satisfactorily resolved to date.
In particular, one problem is to produce continuous patterns in the submicron or nanometer range. It can be easily imagined that as the embossing structures become smaller and smaller the technical problems increase in the implementation of continuous application to an above average degree.